It's not a happy day for people

The only time trans people got together was for Trans Day of Remembrance and, with the best will in the world, it’s not a happy day for people.

It’s not great that we only meet on a really sad occasion. So, we thought we’d meet on a really happy occasion. Pride, or LGBT Pride, or as a lot of people still want to call it, Gay Pride, has never really been truly representative of the trans community. It’s more of a party to get drunk at for gay, white males. Trans people, including myself, have often felt unsafe at Pride. So we wanted something that was grass roots, that wasn’t about alcohol and included campaigning and letting trans people have a voice. Last year we had people travelling from all over the world to come to Brighton Trans Pride.

Initially when we started out, we thought if we can get fifty people that would be great. To have a footfall of 1,500 people come through the park on a Saturday and over one hundred at the cinema, it was truly amazing. It was a lot of hard work, but it was made worth it by the number of people that came down and the comments that were left. That this is how Pride should be, grass roots people campaigning, not about being a party. There’s a hell of a lot of work needs doing to get the trans people to even be treated as equals in this country, and in other countries even further.

This is Steph's testimony in Chapter One (Communities, Trans Pride, LGBTQ, difference, support) of the ground-breaking Brighton Trans*formed book.

To read more intimate, heart-breaking and heart-warming stories from transgender people, click here.